Editor’s note: This is part of an ongoing series about long-running, locally owned restaurants in Topeka.

While it isn’t uncommon for restaurants that survive for decades to change ownership, it is nice when the new owners are family. It also helps when one is a chef, another is trained in hospitality management, and the third is a natural at making strangers feel like friends.

This is what happened at Pepe and Chela’s in October. The Mexican restaurant, which was first opened in 1986 by Jose and Celia Avila and co-owned by their daughter, Olga Smith, was sold to cousin Gonzalo “Gonzo” Sanchez, his wife, Hillary, and his cousin, Jesus “Chewy” Garcia.

Sanchez, from Watsonville, Calif., has been a chef for more than 15 years. His career interest was sparked by his restaurant-cook father. Sanchez took home economics classes all four years in high school.

“My teacher asked if I was taking the classes for an easy A,” he remembered. “I told her, ‘No, I like to cook.’ ”

While in high school, Sanchez also worked in restaurants, starting as a dishwasher and working his way up. After graduation, he went to the Scottsdale Culinary Institute in Arizona, now the Le Cordon Blue College of Culinary Arts. Since then he has worked in various restaurants, including his last position, where he helped build one from the ground up for its owner.

Hillary Sanchez has a background in hospitality management, plus experience as a waitress and bartender. While Gonzo Sanchez is in charge of the kitchen, his wife takes care of the business side, which she does from California. The couple will be apart while their oldest of two sons finishes high school, although she and the kids make frequent trips to Topeka.

“It has been our dream to own a restaurant, but in California it would take a lot of money,” Sanchez said.

When they made their first trip to Topeka in August to check out Pepe and Chela’s, buying the restaurant was “a no-brainer. It is a beautiful restaurant, and we saw the potential,” he said.

What is the first rule when someone buys an established restaurant? Don’t change the menu.

“I’m not going to change the food. I need to make that clear,” Sanchez said. “People do come in for specific things on the menu, and I’m not going to change that.”

Sanchez is making slow changes to the quality of the food he purchases and hopes to source local farmers and producers in the coming year. He also exercises his culinary creativity with nightly specials that will make the regular menu should they become popular. Greeting guests each day, manager Garcia puts into use customer service skills honed throughout a 20-year career as a travel agent.

“When I first heard of the opportunity (to buy the restaurant), we talked about it from day one. I told Gonzo, ‘If you want to move there, we’ll do it,’ ” he said.

Garcia’s fun and somewhat mischievous personality shows as he greets customers, and he makes a special point to learn the regulars’ names. Sanchez said kids will often give him hugs.

“It’s natural for him to interact with people,” Sanchez said.

Most of the employees stayed on after the ownership transition, and it is important to Sanchez and Garcia that they are happy to be there.

“We treat the employees how we want to be treated because we were employees just last month,” Sanchez said. “The employees are a part of our family. We see them every day. Yes, there are going to be fights, but at the end of the day, they’re family. And happy employees mean happy guests.”

One of those employees, Jessie Alejos, has worked at the restaurant for 17 years.

“I love the people that come in,” Alejos said. “There are a lot of regulars that come in. I would miss them if I wasn’t here.”

Alejos noted some customers come from a distance for the food. Many say their parents brought them in as children.

“I’ve heard people come from Kansas City for our food,” Alejos said. “We have the best around. When they come in, we are going to treat them as best we can, like family. We’ll take care of them.”

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That hasn't changed. The beans and the rice are still first rate. They have a variety of sauces now - mild, hot, extra hot, green sauce, and a habanero sauce. They can make it as spicy as you want or not spicy.

Overall, the wait service is noticeably better than before, although one guy is pretty slow.

They had a fantastic Cobb salad one day, still waiting for that to come back.